Natalie Angier

The incidence of the surgery is highest in the South and higher in rural areas than in major cities. However the geographical particulars shake out, the United States ranks as a world leader in hysterectomies, surpassing by anywhere from two- to sixfold the rates seen in Europe and the developing world. Only Australia and Japan manage to keep pace with us in womb-shucking

truth, any time a woman visits a doctor she risks intervention. Which brings us to the intriguing question of why European women have far fewer hysterectomies than Americans do. The

The ducts and lobules do not fully mature until pregnancy, when they proliferate